4 ms·

Am I the only one who looks at foursquare and goes, "Meh?" I know some people love the service (the reason I checked it out was because Woz uses it all the time

by Braasch 14y ago

Am I the only one who looks at foursquare and goes, "Meh?" I know some people love the service (the reason I checked it out was because Woz uses it all the time), but I just can't find a use for it. Regardless, the redesigned application is really slick by any standards; awesome job to the team for making the UI much better than before (maybe that's one gripe I had that ruined my initial foursquare experience).

doctoboggan 14y ago
I personally like to use it to read what others say about a place I am visiting. I find it most useful when I am traveling to a place I have never been before. Specifically, Airports often have good comments about which security lines to take, where the best food is, and other interesting/useful comments.
andrewpi 14y ago
I live in NYC, I use foursquare almost daily for keeping up with friends, and for getting venue recommendations. Specials are a nice bonus as well. However, I've tried using foursquare in smaller towns and it wasn't nearly as useful.
jorgeortiz85 14y ago
Disclaimer: I work at foursquare. I see foursquare as having a few main use cases. Not every use case is for every user, but I think there's something for almost everyone. 1) Social utility/friend finder: Where are my friends and what are they doing? Can I go hang out with them? Where the party at? If your friend is around the corner at a bar, maybe you want to stop by and say hi (but not if it's a date!). If a friend you haven't seen in years is in from out of town, maybe you can catch up. 2) Recommendation engine/city guide: Foursquare knows what places you visit, what places you come back to, and what places you recommend to your friends. It can use this information from you, your friends, and the population at large to recommend places that you might like to visit. This is useful to find new things near your old haunts, or to get to know places you've never been to before. It works remarkably well. 3) Game: Foursquare encourages you to do things in the real world that you wouldn't otherwise do, and recognizes you for your real-world achievements. Whether you've got a great gym streak going, or you're catching up with all the friends you haven't seen in a long team, or you're visiting lots of new places you've never been to before, Foursquare wants to reward and encourage this behavior. It's not for everyone, but some people get really into the game mechanic and sometimes even really change their behavior to do well in the game. 4) Money saver: Local merchants can give you discounts, VIP treatment, and other special perks for visiting their business for the first time or for visiting repeatedly. This is a win-win-win for merchants, users, and Foursquare, and we're excited to enable these kinds of interactions between people and the local businesses they frequent. 5) Personal journal: I have a log going back three years of practically everywhere I've ever gone, what I did when I was there, and who I was hanging out with. This is a rich trove of information that I'm glad to have just for my own records. But once you add a rich ecosystem of apps that use our API (http://timehop.com/ http://timehop.com/ is one of my faves!), the potential is almost unlimited. Maybe your reaction is still "Meh", but I think there's quite a few reasons to use (and love!) foursquare.
- cmelbye 14y ago
  As a foursquare user, I totally agree with all of these points. The personal journal point is especially cool. I didn't realize it until I tried looking at my past checkins, but it was actually really interesting to look back at what I was doing last summer, what I did when I went downtown with some friends last winter, where we went on vacations, etc. This update looks awesome, nice work! I especially like the new Friends tab - much more useful now that it's actually possible to view multiple prior checkins rather than just the most recent.
  - jorgeortiz85 14y ago
    Glad you like it! We've got lots more exciting stuff coming up soon :)
- ropiku 14y ago
  As a Foursquare user I agree too. Also I love Timehop and I'm glad I used Foursquare a year ago, it's nice to see where I've been.
- coderheed 14y ago
  Timehop is why I signed up for foursquare (back when it was 4square and 7 years ago). Before that I was a skeptic, but I've since convinced a few friends to join. It's an interesting service with a lot of potential. I'm curious if you guys still use Scala (yay!) and Lift (meh.)?
  - jorgeortiz85 14y ago
    Shoot me an email jorge.ortiz@gmail.com

by Braasch 14y ago

doctoboggan 14y ago

I personally like to use it to read what others say about a place I am visiting. I find it most useful when I am traveling to a place I have never been before. Specifically, Airports often have good comments about which security lines to take, where the best food is, and other interesting/useful comments.

andrewpi 14y ago

I live in NYC, I use foursquare almost daily for keeping up with friends, and for getting venue recommendations. Specials are a nice bonus as well. However, I've tried using foursquare in smaller towns and it wasn't nearly as useful.

jorgeortiz85 14y ago

Disclaimer: I work at foursquare. I see foursquare as having a few main use cases. Not every use case is for every user, but I think there's something for almost everyone. 1) Social utility/friend finder: Where are my friends and what are they doing? Can I go hang out with them? Where the party at? If your friend is around the corner at a bar, maybe you want to stop by and say hi (but not if it's a date!). If a friend you haven't seen in years is in from out of town, maybe you can catch up. 2) Recommendation engine/city guide: Foursquare knows what places you visit, what places you come back to, and what places you recommend to your friends. It can use this information from you, your friends, and the population at large to recommend places that you might like to visit. This is useful to find new things near your old haunts, or to get to know places you've never been to before. It works remarkably well. 3) Game: Foursquare encourages you to do things in the real world that you wouldn't otherwise do, and recognizes you for your real-world achievements. Whether you've got a great gym streak going, or you're catching up with all the friends you haven't seen in a long team, or you're visiting lots of new places you've never been to before, Foursquare wants to reward and encourage this behavior. It's not for everyone, but some people get really into the game mechanic and sometimes even really change their behavior to do well in the game. 4) Money saver: Local merchants can give you discounts, VIP treatment, and other special perks for visiting their business for the first time or for visiting repeatedly. This is a win-win-win for merchants, users, and Foursquare, and we're excited to enable these kinds of interactions between people and the local businesses they frequent. 5) Personal journal: I have a log going back three years of practically everywhere I've ever gone, what I did when I was there, and who I was hanging out with. This is a rich trove of information that I'm glad to have just for my own records. But once you add a rich ecosystem of apps that use our API (http://timehop.com/ http://timehop.com/ is one of my faves!), the potential is almost unlimited. Maybe your reaction is still "Meh", but I think there's quite a few reasons to use (and love!) foursquare.

cmelbye 14y ago
As a foursquare user, I totally agree with all of these points. The personal journal point is especially cool. I didn't realize it until I tried looking at my past checkins, but it was actually really interesting to look back at what I was doing last summer, what I did when I went downtown with some friends last winter, where we went on vacations, etc. This update looks awesome, nice work! I especially like the new Friends tab - much more useful now that it's actually possible to view multiple prior checkins rather than just the most recent.
- jorgeortiz85 14y ago
  Glad you like it! We've got lots more exciting stuff coming up soon :)
ropiku 14y ago
As a Foursquare user I agree too. Also I love Timehop and I'm glad I used Foursquare a year ago, it's nice to see where I've been.
coderheed 14y ago
Timehop is why I signed up for foursquare (back when it was 4square and 7 years ago). Before that I was a skeptic, but I've since convinced a few friends to join. It's an interesting service with a lot of potential. I'm curious if you guys still use Scala (yay!) and Lift (meh.)?
- jorgeortiz85 14y ago
  Shoot me an email jorge.ortiz@gmail.com